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Sunday, June 15, 2014

Morris/Hemlock Valley Road

I was up in BC and of course had to do some exploring of the two wheeled pedal variety, and I chanced on this gem of a climb up the Morris and Hemlock Valleys. This area seems about 90 km from Vancouver, and starts in the Fraser River Valley.

I started my ride just after the Morris Valley road turns off to the north from Highway 7 along the shores of Lake Harrison, which seems to provide hydro power to Vancouver. The road continues along the lakefront almost indefinitely, if one looks at the map, and it all looks rather remote.

Several KMs into the ride, there is a turnoff to the left to take the Hemlock Valley road up to a ski area. This is always promising in terms of elevation gain, and the road points immediately skyward from the get go. It doesn't; however, stay pointed in any one direction for long, and as it twists and switchbacks its way up the drainage, the gradients change sharply and suddenly.

Looking back down toward the Fraser Valley.

As I made more progress, attacking the steeps and recovering somewhat on the shallower sections, the road becomes more gravel and less pavement.

A typical switchback on the route illustrates how the grade is steepest toward the center of the corner.

The climbing did not last. About 3k up the road, the pavement gave way to gravel of a particularly ball bearing like sort. I rode some way up it, but turned around to see how it was descending it. This was scary - too scary for me, and I continued my way back down on the reappearing pavement.